Judiciary
Banking and Financial Services
Government Reform

The Anthrax vaccine is a formalin- inactivated vaccine designed to protect military
personnel against the Anthrax virus, which can be used as a biological weapon.

On October 12, 1999, the House Government Reform Committee, of which I am a member,
held a hearing entitled, "Defense Vaccines: Force Protection or False Security?"
The hearing examined the role of vaccines in force protection, specifically the design,
implementation and procurement strategy of the Anthrax Vaccine. Witnesses at the hearing
questioned the safety and effectiveness of the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program, which
proposes to administer an old little-used vaccine to the entire 2.4 million members of the
United States military force.

Based on the hearing record, and more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained from the
Department of Defense and the Food and Drug Administration, the Committee prepared a
report entitled, "The Department of Defense Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program:
Unproven Force Protection." The report finds the Anthrax Vaccine Program
unsustainable in its present form, due to unreliable vaccine supply, unmanageable program
logistics, uncertain safety monitoring, and the unproven efficacy of the current vaccine
against the biological warfare threat.

The report recommends development of a safer, more effective vaccine for broad-based
military use. In the meantime, the report recommends the Department of Defense undertake
the research necessary to make the vaccine safer, including limiting its use to clinical
trials requiring informed consent of all those receiving the immunization.

I have called on the Pentagon to immediately end the program, which forces all American
military personnel to receive vaccinations for the Anthrax virus. America already asks a
great deal from the men and women who serve in our armed forces, without requiring them to
receive a vaccine that may pose dangers to their health. It is especially problematic to
force Reserve, National Guard, and administrative personnel to take this vaccine, when
their odds of being exposed to the virus are extremely low.

In addition to the health dangers of the anthrax vaccine, forcing all personnel to take
the vaccine also poses obstacles to recruiting and personnel retention, at a time when
force levels are dangerously low. For these reasons, I believe the Pentagon should end
this potentially dangerous and controversial program.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Your thoughts and comments are sincerely
appreciated.